Douglas Arvidson is a past winner of the WICE/Paris Transcontinental International Short Story competition. His short fiction has been published in Paris, Prague, and in literary magazines in the United States and he was recently invited to be a staff writer for the Prague Revue, a cutting-edge, online literary journal (http://bit.ly/1mMT6ZC). The novels in his fantasy series, The Eye of the Eye of Stallion, include The Face in Amber,The Mirrors of Castaway Time, and A Drop of Wizard's Blood. His new novel, Brothers of the Fire Star, was selected as a finalist in the ForeWord Reviews 2012 Book of the Year national awards and as a finalist in three categories in the 2013 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards: Action Adventure Fiction, Historical Fiction, and Young Adult Fiction. It has become part of the pantheon of Pacific literature and is now included in school literature programs. Brothers of the Fire Star is an adventure story set in the Pacific during World War II and concerns two boys of different races and cultures who escape the island of Guam in a small sailboat when the Japanese army invades. They must then struggle to survive as they master the secrets of the ancient Pacific navigators. Appropriate for young adults as well as adult readers, Brothers of the Fire Star is available on Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com (http://amzn.to/1j3axVk) and Crossquarter.com. Visit the author's website: douglasarvidson.com

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Writing as a Tropical Storm Forms Over the Keys: How Many Crazies Can Fit on the Head of a Pin?

My work space this morning at the Dolphin Research Center

“I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world as ordinary women. To enter ordinary relationships. I want ecstasy. I am a neurotic -- in the sense that I live in my world. I will not adjust myself to the world. I am adjusted to myself."

"The only abnormality is the inability to love."

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."

These are quotes by the wonderfully odd French writer, Anais Nin. Look her up. She is an original and we like originals. She was a famous diarist and set the standard for writing erotica. Kinda got things going. Her relationship with Henry Miller was legendary--and we all know about Henry Miller.

Writer's have been called odd, strange, alchoholic, obsessive, manic, depressive--the list goes on. And it's true. But, we are in good company. The rest of the world is nuts, too.

Like the news I woke up to this morning: A JetBlue flight attendant pulled the emergency door open and jumped out. Before doing so, he fought with a passenger, grabbed a couple of beers, and bid farewell to both the passengers and his career. The plane was sitting on the tarmac and he slid down an escape shute, so he was fine--and arrested. And so his fifteen minutes of fame begins. Enjoy, my friend.

Next, a lady who wanted chicken MacNuggets instead of the breakfast being offered by a McDonalds restaurant (it was still breakfast time, dear), attacked the server right through the drive-through window. Tried to climb in it, presumably whilst yelled expletives. She eventually broke the window and was arrested and charged with vandalism. Love to see the rap sheet on her. But, then again, I can guess.

So, as I start day 9 at my dolphin-enhanced re-writer's refuge in the Florida Keys , I'm protected from neurotics and contemplating the continuing work on the book through the morning vale of the tropical depression that is forming over me at this very moment. Continued black clouds and thunder and lightening and rain greeted me through the fine big windows that look out over the Florida Bay and the dolphin pens. I fear the dolphins will be lonely today as it's hard to imagine many tourists showing up in the rain and booming slop.

I, though, will continue with the task at hand. I've read the manuscript aloud into my hand-held digital recorder to find the pot holes in my prose, made comments and corrections on the manuscript, and now must go though it and make the actual changes to the text on the computer. The hard part, and the fun part, will be expanding or creating more scenes and developing characters. Let me get to work.

Two Blogs Going

I now have two blogs. One about anything I feel like writing about (douglasarvidson.blogspot.com) and the other about my new book(brothersofthefirestar.blogspot.com). I invite you to visit both. Why a blog dedicated to a book? I believe in Brothers of the Fire Star. It pretty much covers what I want to say about things; about brotherhood and courage and how bad war is for living and breathing people. It says what I want to say about how stupid it is that race and culture can keep those living and breathing people from liking each other and how necessary courage and tolerance are to our survival. In this book, my heros are two boys who have that special courage that allows them to survive against great odss. It allows them to embrace a powerful brotherhood despite the vast differences in their backgrounds. It is that courage, raw and simple, that brings them to their necessary end game. I developed this blog to describe what informed the writing of this book because I thought it might lend it some credence to my goals. In any event, I hope you enjoy the voyage you will take with Joseph and Napu as they meet their fates.